City’s homeless brace for the cold: ‘Winter is coming’

By Reem Kodmany

The city’s homeless and the agencies that serve them are getting ready for a long, cold winter.

“I need money to buy clothes and I need to feel just warm,” said Rahan Tale. “Winter is coming. Last night was scary because I didn’t know where to stay. I was cold, so, hopefully, I can get a place before winter.”

There are about 197 people homeless in Windsor and Essex County on any given night, down two percent from 2016, say officials.

But the pressure hasn’t let up on the Downtown Mission, and city alleys and streets are littered with discarded needles and the sight of shopping carts loaded with possessions.

The Mission offers beds to 100 people a night and offers hot meals to a steady stream of hungry people, including youth, every day.

Paula Monteleone, a service support worker at the Downtown Mission, said the number of people seeking shelter seems to be on the rise and that she worries about the coming cold.

“It’s been steadily increasing,” she said. “We can chalk that all up to the lack of affordable housing.”

There are 4,700 people on the waiting list for affordable housing in Windsor. That’s the highest ever and double what it was just 18 months ago.

Windsor councillors recently approved the construction of a 150-unit affordable housing complex in the 3100 block of Meadowbrook Lane near Lauzon Parkway.

But that won’t help Peggy Tessier this winter. The 70-year-old woman is homeless and goes to the Mission for hot meals. She and her friends seek shelter from the biting wind behind McDonald’s in downtown Windsor.

“I’m seventy-years-old. I shouldn’t be on the street,” said Tessier. “If you have a roof over your head, you have hope.”

People can be pushed into homelessness by different factors, including job loss, mental illness, addiction, family violence or abuse and extreme poverty, said Lady Laforet, the executive director of the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women.

The Welcome Centre is the only shelter for women and families in the city and offers a variety of education and support programs for those battling addiction.

“We also offer a job program for women who self-identify as being at risk to losing their housing as well as a food bank program,” said Laforet.